Palm tree top crushes man waiting for a ride to a funeral

A California man waiting for a ride to his uncle's funeral in East Los Angeles was killed Saturday when the crown of a palm tree fell on him without warning.

Relatives identified the victim as Tony Calderon, 49 and the father of a 7-year-old boy, KTLA reported.

Tony Calderon was killed Saturday morning when the crown of a date palm fell on him as he waited to go to a funeral.NBC LA screen capture

The tree-crown, weighing an estimated 1 ton, fell on Calderon about 8:30 a.m. Witnesses told NBC Los Angeles that Calderon was crushed and screaming for help when they arrived, but they couldn't lift the tree top off him. The fire department brought in a crane to remove the chunk.

The victim died at the scene, officials said.

The crown that fell on Calderon came from a Canary Island date palm. The tree had a lot of live fronds and showed no outward signs of trouble, arborist Lisa Smith told NBC LA.

But Calderon's relatives told the station that the tree's owner had been asked to take it down several times over the past 15 years.

"I've always worried about those trees but I don't have the money to cut them down," Cordova said. "This is the last thing I thought would happen."

The neighborhood around the tragedy filled with people seeking to pay their respects Saturday evening. Among them was Tony Scott, who was paralyzed from the waist down 15 years ago when a palm tree fell on him.

"It just took me back to 1999," Scott told KCAL. "My heart started beating. (When I heard about today) literally my heart started beating through my chest."